Harry Kalas was an iconic voice in the baseball world. Kalas was synonymous with the Philadelphia Phillies as their play-by-play announcer from 1971 until his death in 2009.
Kalas had many great calls throughout his career, but one has stuck with Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins to this day.
Rollins talked about what Harry Kalas meant to him on this week’s episode of Audacy’s Unwritten: Behind Baseball’s Secret Rules podcast.
“He was everything. He called my first hit and I remember like it was yesterday. I’ve watched the clip probably 1,000 times,” Rollins said (5:55 in player above).
“After his passing you don’t really think about how much a person means to you because they’re there all the time. You hear it all the time. It’s just a part of your life," he continued. "Then when he passed, it took me a while to go back and I’m like ‘I haven’t heard his voice in a while’ and it hit me and I went back and I watched it. Tears just came to my eyes like man, this dude meant more than I really thought he did.”
Although Rollins is now loved in Philadelphia, he had some contentious moments during his career, most notably when he called the fans frontrunners in August of 2008. And he heard it from Kalas.
“‘J-Roll, J-Roll, why’d you say it? Just why?’” Kalas said to Rollins.
“You want to stand on your rock, but this is Harry and you know his passion, he was speaking with his heart,” Rollins said. “I didn’t want to be disrespectful to him. It’s like man, I almost kind of felt like I disrespected him in saying that.”
Just a few short months after those comments, Rollins helped lead the Phillies to their first World Series championship since 1980.
“But like I said, he meant everything to me. I loved hearing his voice. I’m glad he had a chance to call our World Series win, which he didn’t get a chance in 1980. He called my first hit and it’s something I’ll never get out of my head, I can remember like it was yesterday.”
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram